My five year old daughter met Rocco Baldelli when she was two at Fan Fest and he signed a ball for her and held her for a picture. Since then she's been a big fan of his, often asking us if "Rocco is not sick any more" and always excited when she saw him play on TV. She would cheer like crazy if he got a hit.

Tonight while eating dinner my daughter said "I'm not going to root for Rocco anymore." My wife and I looked at each other puzzled and asked her why. Her response was "Because he doesn't play for the Rays any more, he plays for the Red Stinkers."

We both laughed hard and thought we'd pass the story on to you. She's one great kid!

Here's one of her pics with Rocco taken at Fan Fest few years back.

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The Padres exercised the $9 million option of right fielder Brian Giles for 2009 on Friday, but doing so is like spending a few extra bucks on a polish job on the fenders and hub caps before selling a used car. San Diego nearly dealt Giles to Boston and later to Oakland during the season, and it stands to reason that this winter the Padres will approach Giles about waiving his no-trade rights to facilitate a trade out of San Diego. (As of Saturday evening, they had not done this.)

It's very possible that in the days ahead, the face of the franchise, Trevor Hoffman -- who arrived in San Diego 185 months ago, in the midst of the Fire Sale -- will cut ties with the team. The Padres offered Hoffman a $4 million deal last month, which would be a $3 million reduction in salary from what he made in 2008, and friends of the pitcher wonder if San Diego is merely looking to politely nudge him out the door. Hoffman has responded by asking for a meeting with club ownership to discuss the future of the franchise.

According to MLBTraderumors.com Brian Giles has said "If it would help our organization get better, I'm not saying I would veto a trade."

Giles and Hoffman both fill positions of need for the Rays, and the Rays seem to have the prospects it would take to pull off a deal with the Padres. Both are expensive players and obviously short term solutions at their respective positions, but they undoubtedly bolster two glaring weaknesses from last year's Rays AL Championship roster.

Is it out of the question to deal for Giles and/or Hoffman? What would it take to pull off such a deal? Would their addition be enough to push the Rays over the top next season?

Everyone else seems to be throwing around ideas for next year's roster. I figured I'd give it a shot.

I don't expect the Rays to make as many big money moves as the others have projected. Based on the previous history of our management I expect the Rays to pursue undervalued free agents and keep spending to a minimum, saving money to keep our core players together.

Here we go:

- Sign Brian Fuentes. He's a much needed left handed arm and would fill an obvious need as Closer. The Rays showed interest in him during the season. This makes too much sense. He's an A level Free Agent, but worth the pick in my opinion.

- Sign Will Ohman to give an additional, reliable LH arm.

- Trade Edwin Jackson to the Mets for Aaron Heilman.

- Sign Milton Bradley to be our DH.

- Beg Troy Percival to retire.

STARTING ROTATION

- Shields

- Kazmir

- Garza

- Price

- Sonnanstine

BULLPEN

CL - Fuentes

Ohman, Heilman, Wheeler, Balfour, Howell, Bradford (in no particular order)

LINEUP

2B Iwamura

LF Crawford

CF Upton

DH Bradley

1B Pena

3B Longoria

RF Perez/Gross

C Navarro

SS Bartlett

1 - Is this one of the worst officiated World Series ever? There have been horrible, game-altering calls made every game, for both teams. These are supposed to be the best umpires in the game and they're failing on the biggest stage in baseball. No consistency, no clue.

This is not an excuse for the Rays record in this series. The Rays have been generally outplayed and the poor calls have only added to the misery. 

2 - Can someone please explain to me what MLB is thinking by having every World Series game start after 8PM EST? I understand their need to grab west coast viewers, but couldn't the weekend games at least have been scheduled earlier?

I have fond memories of watching the World Series as a young child and it helped make me the baseball fan I am today. By scheduling the games so late I feel that MLB is missing out on an opportunity to attract a whole new generation of fans to the game of baseball.

Actor/Comedian Steve Harvey was found dead in his home this morning.  Steve Harvey was 51 years old.

Authorities are investigating the death as a homicide. According to reports, Mr. Harvey received threats on his life last night during the airing of his television show "The Steve Harvey Show" which was televised on TBS.

While the circumstances surrounding Steve Harvey's death are suspecious, police are releasing only a few details regarding the crime scene. They found a baseball autographed "From BJ to RJ" inserted in Mr. Harvey's anus. They also found a defaced photograph of Major League Baseball player Edwin Jackson with the words "Sonny Rules" written on it.

Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to tune into TBS tonight for Game 7 of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series and cheer for the Rays.

via steveharvey.premiereinteractive.com

Watching the Rays and Cubbies play this past week got me thinking about how the Rays may be doing if the new ownership had kept Lou Piniella when they came in rather than searching for a new coach, ultimately hiring Joe Maddon.

On a related note I find it funny how last year there were so many people, especially on the radio, calling for Maddon's head on a stick and making noise how he wasn't mean enough like Piniella. There was also a lot of talk about how the Rays should dump Maddon and bring in Joe Girardi. I haven't heard anything like that this year.

With the Rays strong play this year we've kind of forgotten about that future Ace we have stashed away in the minors. Normally by this time in the season there's clamoring to see the top prospects called up.

Does anyone here have news on Price? How's he progressing? Any first hand accounts of him pitching? What are the odds we see him in a Rays uniform this year? Will we even need him this year?

From RotoWorld.com

Alvarez was once thought of as a top prospect within the organization and received all kinds of love from Peter Gammons, but began this season at Triple-A for the fourth straight year, posting a 6.46 ERA and 8/11 K/BB ratio in 15 1/3 innings. He's still just 25 years old and figures to latch on somewhere, but has a 5.14 ERA in 378 career innings at Triple-A.

Is Alvarez worth picking up to put on the Durham Bulls roster? As a one-time top prospect you'd think he must have some skills worth taking at shot at salvaging.

The Cubs have signed outfielder Reed Johnson, who had been with the Blue Jays, to a one-year contract.

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There's been a lot of talk lately about dealing one of our pitchers to get a backup Center Fielder and Left-Handed Bat. What if you get fill that need cheaply and without losing a pitcher in trade?

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According to the AP.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BBO_METS_TWINS_SANTANA_TRADE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=SPORTS&am p;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-01-29-17-27-00

I'd rather have him become a Ray, but at least he's out of the division!

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According to RotoWorld outfielder Josh Hamilton was traded to the Rangers for RHP Edinson Volquez and LHP Daniel Herrera.

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According to the Baltimore Sun, the Astros have acquired Miguel Tejada from the Orioles for LHP Troy Patton, OF Luke Scott, RHP Matt Albers, RHP Dennis Sarfate and 3B Michael Costanzo.

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1B - Ben Broussard
LHP - Neal Cotts
OF - Cory Sullivan
C - Eric Munson

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According to RotoWorld the Angels don't plan to offer Bartolo Colon arbitration prior to Saturday's deadline.

What if the Rays signed Bartolo Colon?

How would a rotation of Colon, Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Jackson affect the AL East standings?

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